On the Bright Side
by Gandalf3213
Summary: Ben was thrown out by Abigal just before unlocking a secret that might lead to another treasure. Trying to confirm this, he goes to Riley only to find his apartment ransacked, blood on the floor, and a note. Can Ben save Riley before Ian gets his revenge?
1. 9 Years Before

**A/N: First National Treasure fic, so be nice for a couple of chapters until I get the hang of this. The first chapters just a background, so there's no plot in it whatsoever, it's purely for fun. I don't own National Treasure. If you do, great, I'm happy. Don't sue. **

_Nine Years Ago_

Ben Gates tapped his fingers against his pants impatiently, waiting for the elevator. He was supposed to be giving this lecture in five minutes and he still had to find the room.

He stepped in as soon as the doors opened and poked the 5 button. In his haste, he had hit his briefcase against the wall. It sprang open just as the doors closed.

Muttering curses under his breath, Ben scooped up the pages. Most of it was notes on the treasure. He reached out to grab a page and found it being handed to him, stacked neatly on top of several others.

A second's examination of the bearer of the pages revealed a young man, presumably a student, eighteen years old at most, glasses perched on his nose. "Thanks." Ben said, gratefully taking the papers. The second his hand reached for them, the elevator jerked to a stop.

"Wh ―" the papers were pushed against Ben's chest as the student's balance was thrown off. They were both pushed against the side of the elevator.

Looking up, Ben gritted his teeth. He was _definitely_ going to be late for his lecture now. He started to gather his papers up for the second time, rifling with them until they were in order. This was exactly what he didn't need right now.

Realizing he was missing several papers, Ben glanced around the small space for them and found that they were still in the possession of the student. He was holding them, staring at them, but his hands were shaking. His whole body was shaking.

Not sure how best to go about getting his papers back from the student, who he might be sharing the elevator with for some time, depending on how long it took the maintenance crews to get the elevator back on line, Ben cleared his throat.

The student looked up from the papers, which he was now clutching so hard his knuckles were turning white. Seeming to realize for the first time that Ben was there, he said, "Oh. Hi. I guess you want your papers back Mr...?"

"Gates." Ben said, taking the papers from the boy. "Ben Gates."

"Mr. Gates." The boy repeated, still staring at the papers. Still shaking. He tilted his head slightly to one side, as if trying to remember something. "You aren't the one who was giving the lecture?" it was a half-question that Ben answered. Anything to do with history.

"Yeah, I am. You take the class...?"He left the end open, hoping for a name. Looking at the boy, trying to calculate the odds of meeting someone who took the class that he supposed to be speaking to right now.

The boy was clearly trying to get his shaking under control, he kept glancing at the elevator doors as if willing them to open. "Yeah, I do. Take the class. Riley." The words came out calm, the shaking continued.

"Ben."

"Riley." The boy brought both eyebrows together, puzzled.

Ben laughed, even though he knew it wasn't meant to be funny. "No, I'm Ben." Unable to take the kid's shaking any longer, Ben asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." The response was too quick to be true, said as if that was the answer he had given to the same question many times before. Riley must have seen Ben's eyebrows lift because he sighed, amending. "I don't like elevators."

Ben nodded, understanding. "Claustrophobic?"

Riley nodded, clearly wanting to get off the topic, even if his shaking couldn't let him forget his phobia completely. "So...what's on the papers? Something about a...treasure?"

It was the only invitation that Ben needed. Launching immediately into the story of his great-great-great grandfather, Thomas Gates, and of Charles Carrol, then backtracking through the ages to the Knight's Templar and the Holy Grail, touching on the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, the Knights of the Round table. His story had gotten infinitely larger than the one his grandfather had told him, talking in detail about the countries and nations that had contributed the treasure and ending with his belief that the treasure existed and that there were clues that would lead his to it.

He finished speaking, realizing that the kid, Riley, was staring at him, eyes wide, a slight smile on his face. "You'll find it."

"What?" Ben was used to defending his theory in front of professors, scientists, his father...everyone who claimed it didn't exist. No one had believed him in so long, he found it highly improbable that anyone ever would.

Riley hadn't stopped shaking. Ben realized that the two of them were sitting very close together and he was tempted to put his arm around this boy. There was something about him...probably his youth, or maybe the fact that he was scared, or that he believed in the treasure...something that made Ben want to protect him, to comfort him.

Riley continued, the words coming fast, his eyes round and passionate. "You'll find it, the treasure. Mr. Gates, you should hear the way you talk about that treasure. You'll find it." Ben wondered how he could say those words over and over. His grandfather had known that he would find it, but he had said it out of pride and conviction. Riley...this kid he'd met in an elevator...said it with simple faith.

"Ben." Ben said it to keep himself grounded. Someone believed in him. Even if it was an eighteen-year-old college kid, it still counted for something.

"Riley." Riley corrected. He looked at the elevator doors, than at his watch. His shaking doubled, and this time Ben put a hand on his arm, which earned him a fleeting smile.

Ben let out a deep breath. They'd been in here for a while. His legs were starting to cramp up. "So, Riley, you know a lot about history, I take it."

"It's my minor." Riley shrugged, but this simple conversation had reduced his shivers somewhat. "Majoring in computer technology."

Ben arched an eyebrow again. "Odd combination." Just as he said it, the elevator groaned. Riley's body tensed under Ben's hand. He obviously thought the elevator was going to drop. Instead, it started descending.

Riley let out a huge sigh of relief, clamoring to his feet and picking up his discarded school bag. "Well, that was an adventure." He said as they both got off the elevator. "We should definetly do it again sometime, Mr. Gates." He put out a hand, which Ben shook.

"Ben." He corrected.

"Riley." The boy said back, turning around, leaving the older man laughing in the middle of the lobby surrounded by maintenance workers.

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	2. Blood Red

**A/N: If you know any of my stories, you'll know that I never, ever update this quickly, but you people inspired me (seriously, like, 15 reviews for a first chapter is awesomely huge. Keep it up) so I think everyone deserves another chapter. Plus, I really do like Riley. Oh, I don't own it. Sorry.**

"Riley!" Ben almost yelled into the phone as soon as someone picked up. "Riley, this is huge...like, stealing the Declaration huge! I ―" his mini tirade was cut off by Riley's answering machine. Ben held the phone away from his face and studied it for a second. If Riley didn't have his cell phone on him, then the world was definitely going to end tomorrow.

He stared at his computer, scrolling through the hundreds of characters he had typed in for a search. He had taken some of the symbols that had turned up repeatedly on different pieces of the treasure and searched his library (and the World Wide Web) for their meaning. He had it.

The treasure that they had found had been the treasure of the Mason's but (and it was a big but) it wasn't the whole treasure. If the translation of these characters was right, then the treasure that the Knights had ― the real, honest-to-goodness King Arthur Knights of the Round Table ― was somewhere else. Hidden by clues.

And Ben was a sucker for clues.

Ben began to punch in Riley's number again when Abigail Chase came into the room. He looked up at her, then at his watch, and groaned. "It was tonight? Abi, I swear I forgot. It's just this treasure ―"

"Out." The woman, who suddenly seemed to take up the whole room, pointed at the door, her face hard. Her expression softened somewhat at the look of incredulity on Ben's face. "Just...tonight, Ben, it was big, and you blew it. Go out, go to Riley, talk over this treasure. Go on a hunt for all I care! Just leave me out of it. When you're ready to come back and settle down and forget about the clues and the mysteries and the treasure...then come home."

Ben's eyes were round and pleading. "Abi ―" he began again, but Abigail turned her face away. Sighing, he picked up his old bag, stuffed all his papers into it, and collapsed his laptop. He walked towards the door, kissing Abigail on the cheek as he left. "I'm sorry..." he said, feeling her begin to slip into his embrace before she fortified her defenses. "I'll be back." He promised, the Terminator line coming out soft, a promise.

He left her standing in the middle of the room, shaking, one hand on her cheek.

Ben got into his car, which, admittedly, wasn't nearly as cool as Riley's, and started heading the familiar direction of Riley's apartment, which he hadn't changed since college, even though both Abi and Ben had told him to "get a bigger place, damnit."

He remembered the first time he'd asked Riley for help treasure hunting. Two months after their first meeting, way before the Charlotte and Ian, Ben found the need to look at some documents that he _knew_ where an important key to finding the treasure.

Problem: The documents where in the Museum of Natural History, who already hated his guts for telling them that there was no way seventeen knights would be clustered in a clearing, together, with their swords out. Which basically meant that the chances of him looking at the documents legally were basically...not good.

He needed to get past security. A quick get in/look/get out job. But he couldn't do it alone. He definitely couldn't ask his dad, and any colleges he had in the history world thought he was insane.

It might have been stupid, but Ben had remembered a kid he was once trapped in an elevator with. One who was majoring in computer technology. A kid who believed the treasure existed.

Which is how Riley Poole had officially been added to the team. The eighteen-year-old college freshmen got Ben in and out, modified a camera so it could take pictures of the documents in a case without getting shiny, and turned off all the security cameras in the storage room of the museum.

And they never found out.

Riley had basically become a part of Ben's life after that. A computer nerd fifteen years younger than Ben who liked video games, computers, history, and computers, and always had to get the last word in.

Ben parked the car right next to Riley's red "baby", scooping up his documents and computer and trekking up the stairs to Riley's second-floor apartment. Rolling his eyes, Ben realized he'd have to put everything down in order to get out the spare key Riley gave him. He kicked the door, raising his voice. "Riley!"

More kicks, another few seconds before another call, "Riley, open up!" Ben shifted his packages; this stuff should be heavy sometimes.

He suddenly remembered how Riley hadn't answered his cell for the first time in nine years. His "baby" was parked outside. Riley should be here.

Right?

Dropping the stuff, Ben plunged his hand into his back pocket where he kept his keys. Locating the right one, he jammed it into the door, opening it.

"Riley?" He moved his stuff inside, flipping on a light switch. That probably should have been his first sign that something was wrong.

Ducking his head into the room that housed Riley's computer (it shouldn't really be called a computer, because Riley had modified it beyond recognition), Ben saw a flash of red.

All over the floor, red puddles, some bigger than others, a few drops on the wall. Ben had seen enough CSI to know that it was blood. _"Riley!"_

He rushed into the room, expecting to find his young friend in a corner, hurt, dead, bleeding. There was no Riley. Who would do this? Riley didn't have any enemies...Ben was the one who was always defending the treasure, speaking out...

A page, torn from a notebook, was lying in the middle one of the blood puddles. Ben crouched down, not quite stupid enough to touch it. Again, CSI.

_Ben,_

_The computer nerd is fine. Contrary to popular belief, a human can bleed for quite some time without dying. But he won't stay fine for long._

_I know there's another treasure. I know you know how to find it. So let's make this into a game. Prizes at the end: The kid for you, the treasure for me. Rules: No calling the police. You have 72 hours, or Riley's dead._

_Simple enough?_

Ian. Forgetting everything, Ben's hand curled in a fist around the paper, his hand coming away stained with Riley's blood.

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	3. Burnt Orange

**I don't own National Treasure. Sorry.**

_Eight Years Ago_

"I don't think we should be doing this, Ben." Riley's voice held a touch of what Ben could only assume was fear. Ben sighed, looking up ahead.

They were in a tunnel, discovered long ago by scholars and historians, believed to have been used to smuggle...something. No one had ever figured out what. Ben had an idea. "The treasure could be right here, Riley. We could be _this close_ to discovering the secrets to man's greatest mysteries...Egypt, China, England...all of their stories."

He heard Riley mutter behind him, "What about Atlantis? Doesn't anyone care about them?" Ben had to smile at the nineteen-year-old. He had guts, that was for sure.

A cry of surprise behind him made Ben turn around just in time to see Riley fall out of sight. Ben ran to the place he's disappeared. "Riley!" where was he? Where were they? Ben chanced a glance at the map. This offshoot of the main tunnel wasn't on it.

"Ben?" Riley's voice was high and strained. He was scared. A soft cry of pain made Ben yell Riley's name again. "Ben, I think my arm's broken." A soft rustle of fabric, another cry of pain before Riley spoke again. "Yeah, it's definitely broken."

Ben's mouth opened, hoping to say something to comfort his young friend, instead, "What do you see?"

"Nothing, Ben, it's dark." Ben wanted to hit himself. Of course it was dark. "Just stay there." He called, barely hearing Riley's soft "duh" in return as he rummaged in his bag for rope. He just hoped it would be long enough. He dropped the rope, yelling down for Riley to hang on, to tie it around his waist..._something_. The rope just barely reached the bottom of the pit. As soon as Riley called back up that he was ready, Ben started pulling.

Everything went well until Riley was visible. Ben gasped as he looked at him, his face covered with dirt, a gash on the back of his head bleeding, and his arm, as he had said, was broken. That was when Ben did something he'd always regret.

He let go of the rope.

Blue eyes met his, wide, frightened, a mouth open in a silent cry. Even as he started falling the young boy worked frantically to get a grip on something...anything. His good arm reached for the edge of the pit, towards Ben, and clung to the side.

"Ben!" He was dangling over the pit, the rope had already fallen from his grasp as he desperately hung on to the stone. But his grip was slipping.

The sound of his name made Ben get into action. He grasped Riley's arms and heaved, trying to ignore the shout of pain from Riley as he pulled on his broken arm. They both ended up panting at the side of the pit, chests heaving. Riley moaned softly.

That was the first time one of Ben's crazy adventures had gotten Riley hurt. It was far from the last.

_Present Day_

Ben was going back the way he came, his mind working furously to try to see a way out of this. Riley was hurt, bad, by Ian, who had obviously escaped from jail.

_Was is Ian?_ The small, sad voice inside his head wasn't sure. It was the voice that wanted to reject what Ben had seen tonight, the voice that wanted to convince him that everything was fine, and that his young computer friend wasn't in danger of dying or...

Dead. The word made a lump appear in Ben's throat that he couldn't quite swallow past. A fleeting image of Riley, smiling at him, glasses slightly askew, blue eyes laughing, trusting. It was replaced by a picture of Riley lying in a puddle of his own blood, clearly dead.

A strangled sob escaped Ben's throat, tears coming to his eyes so that he had to blink very quickly to be able to see. He took a deep breath. Now was not a good time to become emotional. Now was the tiem where he had to be calm, look at the situation from all angles, treat it like the game Ian obviously thought it was. A game with stakes way too high.

He needed help, and help meant Abby, as opposed as he was to dragging her in to something that was sure to be dangerous. Another small voice reminded him that he'd been kicked out of the house not an hour ago, and another voice argued that Abby would want to know if Riley was in danger. She cared about the cocky kid as much as he did.

After he got Abby...he didn't know. Maybe Ian would try to contact him, and if that happened he would bargain with him. He would give up anything to save Riley's life.

He pulled into the driveway, leaping out of the car almost before it had actually stopped. Taking the front steps two at a time, he was about to open the door when he remembered, once, again, that he had been kicked out.

his hand curled around the blood-stained piece of paper in his hand. He didn't have time for this. No, _Riley_ didn't have time for this. He rang the doorbell, knocking sharply on the door at the same time and calling out Abby's name.

After a long minute of persistant knocking, ringing, and calling, Abby opened the door so that her face and upper body could show through. She had obviously just gotten out of a shower, and her short hair was damp, making the grey, over-sized T-shirt wet. "Ben, we can't do this right now," she began angrily, eyebrows coming together even as Ben interupted her.

"It's Riley." He held out his hand, the one holding the letter.

"Riley?" She said the anme as if she'd never heard it before, looking at his hand, "But...Ben! Your hand! Is that blood?" She emerged fully fromt he house, leaving the door wide open as she reached for his hand.

"Yeah, it's blood, but it's Riley's. Look." He opened his hand, and Abby took the note, reading it in a matter of seconds. When she looked up again, her face was white, her eyes wide.

Ben put an awkward arm around the woman's shoulder as she literally shook with suppressed emotions. When she finally could get words out, a million thoughts seemed to spill out at once. "Riley...I can't belive it...how much blood was there?...we should call the police." the last part was stated clearly, looking directly at Ben.

"Abby..." he held up his hands in a 'stop' motion, "This is Ian. If he even _suspects_ we're bringing in the police he'll shoot. He will kill RIley if he thinks he'll get to the treasure."

Abby ignored him and reached into his back pocket for his cell phone, Ben barely got the words "Abby, no --" out of his mouth before the phone in her hand rang.

Ben stared at the phone, then at Abagail's white face before reaching over to pick up the phone.

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	4. Sun Yellow

**I don't own it.**

"Hello, Ben."

A cold, slimy, sick feeling settled in the pit of Ben Gate's stomach as he clutched the phone closer to his head, leaning down slightly so that Abigail could listen at the same time. He licked his lips, making his voice as forceful as he could muster before saying, clearly, coldly, "Where's Riley, Ian?"

A low laugh from the other side of the phone made Ben pull the instrument away from his ear. God, he hated that laugh. "He's with me." A second's pause, then the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Ben ground his teeth furiously at the sound of a low groan that was cut off immediately, as if Riley had bit his lip to keep the sound inside. "And he's fine. For now. I just need some information from him. And the treasure from you."

Ben glanced at Abigail, seeing her face white with fear. He shook his head frantically a split second before she spoke. Her voice was shaking along with her body. From anger. From fear. "Don't hurt Riley."

Ian laughed again. More sounds of hitting and kicking echoed from over the phone. "I can't promise that Ms. Chase." Ben wanted to hit him. There was...something...in his voice that proved that he would do anything he wanted to Riley.

"Let me talk to him." Again, Ben tried to sound as forceful as he could.

"Why would I let you do that?"

Ben wanted to throw the phone away and get into the car to help Riley. Instead, he forced himself to remain calm, even though he was faced with a sadistic killer. "Because I need to make sure he'd still alive if I'm going to hand over anything." This implied that he knew where the treasure was. He barely knew a treasure _existed_.

A whispered instruction, another swift punch, and Riley's breathless voice sounded over the phone. "H-Hey Ben." Ben heard the wince from over the phone and burned with rage. Ian was dead.

"Riley, are you okay?" As soon as the words left his mouth he realized how insanely ludicrous they actually were.

Riley must have realized that too. "Actually, no." Ben remembered all the blood in the apartment. "But that doesn't matter now." Riley's voice took on a slightly desperate quality, "Find me, Ben. Please. Like before." The words were barely out of his mouth before the phone was yanked away.

"You have seventy-one hours Ben. No police." Was he enjoying this? Ben thought so. "The clock's ticking."

Then the line went dead.

_Eight Years Ago_

"Ben?"

Ben groaned and swatted Riley away. They were on a plane leaving one of the worst experiences of Ben's life. All he wanted to do was sleep for about a year and forget it ever happened. And Riley wouldn't shut up.

Opening one bleary eye, Ben cleared his throat and managed, "What is it, Riley?" The kid looked awful. A black eye on his face, more bruises up and down his arms...he was lucky to be alive. They both were.

Riley looked serious, which was kind of funny. Ben had now been working with Riley for a little bit over a year. He was almost never serious. And he never stopped talking. That had nearly gotten both of them killed. "You didn't have to do that, Ben."

"Do what?" Sleep made his memory slow. He could honestly say he had no idea what Riley was talking about.

Riley jerked his head towards the back of the plane, indicating the god-forsaken country they'd just left. "Back there. You didn't have to step in front of that bullet." He sounded genuinely surprised, as if he'd expected Ben to let him take a bullet to the chest for the treasure.

Ben pushed himself up with the arm that wasn't slung in a cast. "Yeah, I did Riley. And as I remember it, you'd stepped in front of me and I pushed you out of the way." He couldn't believe they were talking about this. No one should have a bullet in them in the first place. They were historians and treasure hunters, not bandits or hit men.

Ben remembered the seeing the gun pointed at him, remembered Riley flying out of nowhere, placing himself squarely in front of Ben, ready to take a bullet to the chest. Ready to die. Ben had pushed him out of the way, the bullet piercing his upper arm but luckily going through-and-through. His arm still hurt like hell, but at least they were both alive.

Coming back to the conversation Ben said, forcefully, "We both got out of there alive and that's what matters." Not to his throbbing arm, but he wasn't about to say anything like that to Riley. The kid looked upset, his eyes wide as he studdied Ben.

"But you got hurt!" It didn't seem to matter that Riley had gotten hurt too. After seeing that the men had shot Ben, he had pounced on them. Being on the short side and rather lacking in physical strength, he was pummeled into the ground.

Ben turned away from the young techie's face, unable to take the sad blue eyes anymore. "I'm fine, Riley. We're both fine." He turned back to him, hit once again with the guilt that was radiating off the nineteen-year-old in waves. He ruffled Riley's hair carefully with his good hand. "We're okay, kid."

Riley let out a pained sigh at the nickname, and the subject was forever dropped. But Ben never forgot that Riley had used himself as a human shield to save him.

_Present Day_

"He'll never give you anything."

Riley said the words idly from where he was sitting in the corner. Or as idly as he could after nearly bleeding out, getting at least two ribs broken, and being beaten like an old rug.

Ian turned to him, eyes icy. He'd always hated the man. "Oh, I think he will."

Riley didn't. The treasure was important to Ben. And, yeah, he knew that Ben liked him. But he'd never give up the treasure for him. Stupid guy would probably attempt a recon mission. And he would so bring in the police.

Remembering the phone conversation that had ended a minute ago, Riley frowned. Ben had sounded hard and cold. Probably thought he was useless for getting kidnapped in the first place. Riley tried to shrug it off. Maybe Ben would decode his lame message. That should make it easier for both of them.

"And even if he doesn't get the treasure." Ian was still talking. Riley tried to force himself to listen. His head felt oddly light, and there was a strange hum that seemed to fill it whenever he let his guard down. "We'll still have you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riley tried to figure out what they were planning to use him for and drew up a blank. His computer skills, obviously, but he couldn't hack into a treasure.

Ian bent down so he and Riley were at the same hight. Riley had the tempting impulse to spit on him. "I know he told you where the treasure is. You'll tell us."

Riley forced a laugh. "I don't know which one of these bozos told you I know where the treasure is, but they're lying. I have no idea." Which was the truth, for once. But even if he had known, there was no way he would have told Ian.

Ian smiled a little, and nodded to a man outside of Riley's range of vision. "He'll need a little more persuading." Ian stood up and a hulking monster of a man took his spot. "We'll talk later." Ian promised, just as the first punch landed on Riley's cheek.

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	5. Sea Green

**I own it not.**

"What are you doing?" Abi sounded terrified, and Ben didn't blame her. It wasn't until that moment that he realized he was shaking, the cell phone in his hand nearly slipping from his fingers as he hastily dialed the number.

As Ben put the phone to his ear, he managed to throw a look at Abi that told her that he thought she was insane. "Bringing in the police." He turned his attention back to the phone, chancing a glance at his watch. Eleven o' clock. God, it was late. "Pick up…" he begged, clutching the phone like a life line.

Some measure of luck was on Ben's side, for the phone was eventually picked up and a slow, reassuring voice answered, "Agent Sadusky."

"I need your help ---" the entire story came out in a jumble of words. Ben was so worried about Riley that he couldn't think straight. God, his friend was being hurt because of a treasure he didn't even know about. Ben remembered a time when Riley was willing to sacrifice himself to save him and he shuddered, hoping that it wouldn't come to that.

As he finished the story, he added, "This isn't a fact, but I think Riley's at Trinity Church…something he said…well, Riley always says things for a reason."

"We'll check it out." Sadusky promised. Ben could sense him changing position before he said, "Don't do anything stupid, Gates."

Ben mentally crossed his fingers as he said, "Of course not."

As Ben hung up, he was met with a death stare from Abi. "What?"

"'Don't bring in the police!'" Abi recited, staring hard at Ben, who was taken aback by the anger in her voice. He was also surprised at the tear tracks on her face. "That's the only thing he said, Ben."

"It's not for Riley." Ben looped an arm around Abi's shoulders, pulling her in close before she could object. He could feel her shaking beneath him. "I need to protect you, Abi. He might try you next."

He looked down, meeting her wet blue eyes. "I can't lose you." He confessed, kissing her lightly.

She tensed beneath him and pulled away, using the back of her hand to wipe the tears from her face. "Not now, Ben," she warned, "We need to get Riley."

Ben nodded, "I'm on it. Don't worry, I could never let anything happen to him." He mentally winced, knowing that his friend had already been hurt…there had been so much blood at his apartment. He headed towards the car. "Sadusky's men should be here in ten minutes. Don't leave the house…please. For me."

He was tempted to go back to her. She looked so vulnerable, standing on the front stoop, tears making her hair damp. He wanted to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

But he couldn't tell her that. Ben was never good at lying.

_Seven Years Ago_

"So there's a Starbucks around here, right?" Riley looked tired but still hopeful as he glanced up from his laptop at his abductor.

Ben kept his eyes on the road. They were in the middle of nowhere. Mountains rose on both sides, separating them from society. They were about fifty miles away from the nearest person and almost seventy miles from the nearest town. "I doubt it. How'd it coming on those coordinates?"

"We should be there in about twenty minutes." Riley looked up at the ominous clouds above them which had been threatening to let all hell loose all day. Ben didn't miss this and smiled at Riley. "We'll be fine." He assured his young friend.

"Oh I know that," Riley said quickly. "I was worried about that Starbucks. What if it gets hit by lightning before we get there?"

Ben laughed, shaking his head. Let the kid dream up mythical Starbucks'. At least he wasn't freaking out. Riley had a tendency to do that whenever things didn't go as planned. And things rarely went as planned in the treasure-hunting/protecting business.

Riley cringed a little as the first drops fell, his body automatically forming a cage around his laptop, trying to protect it from the storm that was raging outside.

It less than a minute, the rain was coming down in sheets. The windshield wipers was pushing it to the side, but that almost nothing to help the invisibility. Ben's hand tightened on the wheel --- he couldn't afford to make a mistake now.

"Umm…Ben?" Riley sounded scared. He looked up from his laptop, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Maybe we should wait this one out. On the side of the road."

Ben shook his head vehemently. "It can't keep up much longer. Anyway, the worst is already over." His argument was punctuated by a white light blinding them, followed immediately by a booming crash of thunder.

The car skidded as Ben tried desperately to remain in control. He heard Riley shouting to his left and hoped he was okay. The car tottered on the edge of the small ditch before falling into it. The water was already six inches high.

Coughing and sputtering, Ben berated himself for not trading in his beat-up truck for on with airbags. He looked around, blinking away the water that was now seeping quickly into the truck. "Riley…" he said, his voice hoarse. When he received no answer he said, louder, "Riley!"

He looked to his left, his eyes growing wide as he saw the young man hunched over his now-destroyed laptop, blood seeping from a wound in his head.

_Present Day_

Ian sat in a chair backwards to face Riley. The young teckie could barely keep his eyes open --- the cuts and bruises on his head told him to go to sleep. But he forced himself to glare at Ian as well as he could with one eye swollen shut. Riley could only think of the irony of getting beat up in a church. Must be the blood loss.

"It turns out you don't know anything about the treasure." Ian said this slowly, and Riley marveled dully at how slow he had been on the uptake. Ian's goons had worked him over for…he didn't really know how long. Long enough to do a lot of damage to Riley's body.

Still, Riley couldn't resist getting his thoughts in. "Duh." Even if he had known about the treasure, he wouldn't have said anything. He wouldn't betray Ben. Ever.

Ian regarded him as one might regard a bug. "But you are still useful to us."

"Please continue." Riley put on his best this-is-so-interesting face. Again, it failed slightly because of the bruises.

"For some reason, Ben seems to like you. You make good bait. I'm sure we could persuade Ben to tell us where the treasure is." Ian smiled broadly, enjoying Riley's expression.

A hot rage boiled in Riley. "Don't hurt him." The words came out in a low hiss. Riley had momentarily forgotten that he was tied to a chair with a guy pointing a gun at his head (he was in the corner. He didn't say much, but he did hit Riley with his gun when Riley asked if the guy was his guard dog. Ian wouldn't hurt Ben. He wouldn't let it happen.

Ian cocked an eyebrow, smiling still more widely. "And what are you going to do about it?"

He left, leaving Riley desperately trying to hold onto consciousness. Alive, he might be able to help Ben. He might be able to save everyone. Except himself, but he didn't really matter.

**Review?**


	6. Steal Grey

**I don't own National Treasure. A note: The flashback is a continuation from last chapter.**

Ben sped towards the church, praying that his friend was there. Strong emotions were raging through him and he wondered vaguely if he could make sense of them all.

He was angry. So angry. Angry at Ian for putting Riley through this, angry at him for hurting his fried. He was also angry at himself. He had gotten Riley in this business in the first place. What he been thinking, dragging an eighteen-year-old kid into a hundred-year-old feud? He had gotten Riley hurt many times over. And now he could be…

Dead. He could be dead. Ben felt tears well in his eyes and brushed them away impatiently with the back of his hand. Riley was strong and stubborn. If anyone could ride this out, it would be Riley. Ben took a deep, calming breath, before trying to distract himself again.

He was also upset, of course. Upset that Riley had to be put through this, and that he was in a room somewhere with a madman. He was also upset that he had to leave Abigail behind, even though he was doing it so she wouldn't get hurt. Abi meant a lot to him.

He had to dig deeper now to find the feelings that burned his insides like fire. Guilt, for getting Riley into this…the old sense of betrayal, when Ian had turned on him….worried, that maybe they wouldn't make it out of this…Fightened.

Frightened. He was scared. Ben let ot a low growl, pushing the car to its limits. He could let fear interfere now. Not with so much at stake. He had rarely been frightened before.

The church was still an hour away at least. Ben slapped his hand against the wheel, wishing that there was a young computer geek next to him to talk his ear off.

_Seven Years Ago_

Ben had never been really frightened before. Not like this. And that scared him. He shook the body next to him slightly, stupidly, watching in horror as more blood dripped into that water that was pooling around them.

With fumbling fingers, Ben flung off the seatbelt, dropping into the cold water and nearly crushing Riley. He pushed aside Riley's now-ruined laptop, promising himself he'd buy the kid another one. He was thankful that the car hadn't been ruined --- it would have made it much, much harder to get Riley out. As it was, the seatbelt was stuck.

Ben let out a moan of frustration as he tugged uselessly at the belt. Finally, either because the car was old or the water had weakened it, the leather tore, leaving Ben free to grab his friend.

The water had risen by now, and the side of the car they were on was almost completely submerged. Ben knew that they would have to get out before the car rolled again.

Ben pushed the door open with his shoulder, still clutching Riley in his arms. As soon as they were out of the car, Ben felt it.

They were in a monsoon. Or a hurricane. The wind was strong and fast, tugging at Ben's now-too-thin coat. And the rain! It came at them sideways, blinding Ben as he tried to walk to somewhere safe.

Ben laid Riley down as gently as he could on the pavement. Even with the rain in his eyes, Ben could see that the cut on his head was deep and blood was still pouring out thick and fast.

"Riley!" Ben had to shout over the wind, and he was tempted again to sake his young friend, though he didn't. Freshmen health was coming back to him. Instead, Ben used a now-soaked sleeve to try to stop the bleeding. As he pressed the makeshift bandage to Riley's head, the younger man moaned softly, attempting to wiggle away from the rag.

"Riley…" Ben knew that his friend couldn't possibly hear the strangled whisper that had some out of his mouth, but the word escaped anyway. His heart, which he could hear even above the roaring wind, was still pounding in his chest.

Blue eyes opened to meet Ben's. As they focused on him, eyebrows came together. "Ben?" The word was a croak, and a hand came out feebly, painfully, to brush Ben's wet forehead. "You're bleeding."

"So are you, buddy." Ben said, now trying to get over his fear. He checked Riley's other body parts for broken bones or severed limbs. As his hands touched Riley's left arm, he winced, though it was barely noticeable. Ben tugged back the long sleeve to reveal a bone protruding from Riley's wrist. Sucking in a deep breath, Ben ripped another piece of his shirt to tie it around Riley's arm. That was when he noticed the shivering.

"Riley…" He hated to ask this. If there was a phone or a house or anything nearby he would never even suggest it. "Riley, can you walk?"

A flash of spirit showed in Riley's eyes as he valiantly attempted to get to his feet. With Ben's help, Riley stood nearly-straight in the middle of the street that had become a lake. "Your legs okay?" Ben asked worriedly. Riley smiled a small, strained smile and nodded. Ben could see the pain in his eyes even as they started moving forward.

They were miles from anywhere with a phone. Riley had a broken wrist, a concussion, and who knew what else. They were walking in the middle of one of the worst storms in history.

And they were alone.

_Present Day_

Riley was trying not to fall asleep. From his watch, he could see that it had been nearly eight hours ago when Ian had burst into his apartment. Riley winced at the memory, remembering the blood on the floor…his blood.

It should be light out by now. A strange concept in this room with no windows. A door was open on the other side of the room, letting in a small amount of light. The near-darkness didn't help Riley's need for sleep.

He didn't even try to move anymore. There were some cuts that hurt no matter what you did, but movement would open up others.

He hoped Ben was coming…no, he didn't. If Ben was coming, he would get hurt, because he would try to do something rash, like getting Riley out.

When Riley had first been put in this room, he had thought of his cell phone. His second cell phone…the one in his jean pocket. But he couldn't get to it without moving and he really, really didn't want to move. He wanted to sleep.

Taking a deep breath, Riley, tried to bring his hands down to his legs. It was hard work, and painful, and Riley had to grit his teeth several times to keep from crying out. The reason he kept going was the thought of Ben, who was too reckless for his own good when he was angry, and Abigail, who would be worrying if she was left home.

Finally, he reached the phone. He pressed one button, hoping someone would answer.

**Review?**


	7. Denim Blue

**Don't own it.**

Ben wondered whether or not to answer his cell phone. The ringing had brought him out of his semi-trance and was as annoying as Hell. Finally, he picked up the phone, just to stop the ringing. "Hello?" his voice was tight and anxious. More proof to how this was affecting him, as if he needed it.

"Ben?" The voice on the other end was weak, but Ben still clutched the phone desperately as soon as he heard it. He knew that voice.

"Riley?" he nearly screamed the name. God, it was Riley! "How're you doing, Kid? Where are you?"

"Ben, I don't think you should ---" his last words were cut off suddenly by a scream.

Ben's hand was holding the phone so tight his knuckles were turning white. The scream went right through him, touching every nerve along the way. He was going to kill Ian as soon as he saw him. Nobody should be able to hurt Riley like that. Nobody.

Sounds of movement could be heard across the bad connection. Ben immediately sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Hello, Ben."

The words made Ben explode. Hot anger poured through him, and he shouted into the phone. "Ian, I swear that if you hurt Riley I will --- " he was cut off by the other man.

"Kill me, Ben? I would like to see you try." Ben didn't miss the amusement in Ian's voice, and that made him want to scream. "But don't worry. We need the little geek alive. He may not know anything about King Arthur's treasure, but he could be the key to finding it out." Here Ben heard another scream from Riley, as if he'd just been kicked.

"Riley!" The word escaped in desperation. Then it turned hard. "Ian, I'm going to kill you."

It was Ben who hung up.

_Five Years Ago_

"Can you turn that down?"

Riley merely smiled at him and turned the music up louder. Ben groaned and rolled over, trying to ignore the music. "That is the most annoying song ever made." He stated carefully.

Riley looked genuinely hurt. "For your information, _American Pie_ is a brilliant song." For good measure, the young man stuck his tongue out at the older one, who swatted him away. At one in the morning, after a particularly frustrating day trying to decipher a code, Ben was not in the best mood, and he had actually been asleep before someone had decided to turn up their music. Sometimes, Ben swore that Riley was a robot. He never seemed to need sleep.

"I'm up, you happy?" Ben swung his feet off the couch he had fallen asleep on, upsetting several stacks of papers that had previously laid on the other end. Now that he was awake, he wasn't going back to sleep for a while. He went over to the small kitchen, making himself a sandwich. When he came back, Riley had restarted the song. "Fine, I give up. Why is this song so great?"

Riley looked at him, like he had forgotten that he had put the song on again. Then he smiled, saying simply, "It was always my mom's favorite." He frowned slightly, deleting a couple of lines of code he had written and typing furiously again. Ben merely bit into his sandwich, thoughtful.

"I never heard you talk about your parents." This was true. Ben had picked Riley when the kid was a freshman in college and was constantly taking him to various countries. Never once had he heard about any family at all. Now that he thought about it, it disturbed Ben slightly that he knew so little about Riley's past.

Riley shrugged, not looking up from the computer. "There's not much to say." Again, he frowned, deleting the same lines and starting again.

"I need a story." Ben said, smiling a little as the chorus to the song came up…_Drove me Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry_…Riley raised an eyebrow at Ben's comment but otherwise did nothing. "Please?" Ben said, his smile getting wider.

Riley sighed, closing his laptop. The music continued to play softly. "Fine." He bit his lip, then dove in. "My mother was…amazing. She was the one who got me interested in computers. She had gone to school for computer technology but dropped out when she found out she was pregnant with me." He shook his head at Ben's unasked question. "There wasn't a father. You know Anakin in _Star Wars_? It was like that. Well, it could have been. My father wasn't even spoken of."

Riley finally met Ben's eye. The music kept going…_but I knew I was out of luck the day the music died_…"You sure you want to hear this?" Riley asked quietly. Ben once again had to remind himself that he was still a kid. Barely twenty-one, and he looked so much younger. Sometimes he forgot. Riley had a way of seeming bigger and more secure than he actually was. So Ben could only nod.

"My mom died when I was eight." Riley's face didn't change when he said this, but something in his voice made something shrivel up and die in Ben. Even after all these years, that was still hurting Riley. "I had, like, no relatives, so I was put in the system. I got a few nice foster families, and a couple of not-so-nice ones, and a bunch that didn't really give a damn. Anyway, I managed to do pretty well in school, and I must have attracted someone's attention, because I got a partial scholarship."

He looked up at Ben, just realizing his friend's expression. "Umm…The end." Riley tried to smile but didn't quite manage it. The song was still playing, _'__Cause__ the players tried to take the field but the marching band refused to yield._ Ben was still staring at Riley, which probably prompted his, "Ben…Ben? You still with me?" he waved his hand in front of Ben's face.

"Yeah." Ben tried to pull himself together. "Wow…I never knew that, Riley." Riley shrugged, opening his laptop again.

"You tired yet?" Riley asked, peering owlishly at him over his glasses.

Ben yawned, looking down at his half-eaten sandwich. He wasn't hungry anymore. "Getting there, Ri. What'cha doing over there?" Suppressing another yawn, Ben made to look at what Riley was doing, but the younger man swatted him away.

"Go to bed, Ben. You look exhausted."

Ben muttered something to the fact that Riley should be exhausted too, but he relented. He really was tired. He rolled back onto the bed, hearing the last verse of the song, thinking about the small bit of Riley he'd been told that day.

_And the three men I admire most: the father, son, and __holy ghost__, they caught the last train for the coast the day the music died._

_Present Day_

Riley looked blankly from the laptop to Ian. "What do you expect me to do again?"

Ian looked completely relaxed, which just made Riley all that more anxious. It was four in the morning, by his watch (which he could now see). In the past twelve hours, he'd been beaten within an inch of his life, kidnapped, tied up, beaten again, and then _this_.

Before Ian could answer, Riley decided to try to keep some measure of control. If that control meant snide comments, well, all the better. "If you expect me to betray Ben, you could at least get me drunk first."

A fist collided with his face, like he thought it would, and Ian smiled broader. Man, he was really starting to hate that guy. "Anything else you want to say, Riley?" Ian's voice was low and dangerous. Riley pretended not to take the hint, his heart beating faster. He was still working not to fall asleep.

"Yeah, you should seriously think about remodeling this place. I mean, even for the basement of a church, this is kind of pathetic." This time he was ready for the fist and put up his hand. He already had a headache. So the goon (that's what Riley called them in his head. They had changed since the last time Riley had met up with Ian) grabbed his hand and held a finger between his meaty hands, breaking the finger.

Riley screamed, another measure of pain to add to his already battered body. He tried to rip his hand away from the goon, but he was no match for the bigger, more muscular man. Luckily, he wasn't the only one yelling.

"What the Hell did you do that for?" Ian yelled. "He works with _computers_ he needs to _type_."

The goon looked as if this had _just_ dawned on him. After muttering something about Riley having other fingers, he retreated to a corner of the room.

Ian turned to Riley once more. "Now Riley, we'll begin."

Riley shook his head, physically trying to make himself accept what was happening. Despite the fact that he knew Ben would get hurt it he came, Riley was pathetically happy he was coming for him. Almost as if he cared.

Who'd have thought?

**Review?**


	8. Rose Pink

**I don't own them.**

_Four Years Ago_

"I don't trust him."

Ben rolled his eyes at the sky as Riley repeated this line for the thirtieth time that day. "I know , Riley. I think you've already said that. But he has money and he believes in Charlotte, so…yeah. Basically, we need him."

Riley crossed his arms and pouted. Ben glanced at him, finding it funny that the twenty-three year old could still pout. It made him look even younger. Musing, Ben tried to think of another time Riley had been suspicious of one of the people they were around. Riley was suspicious of a lot of people, and scared of some others, and, being a pretty mouthy kid, had voiced his opinion on all of them.

But not like this.

"Really, Ben, he's bad news. Like, he'll ditch us as soon as we're close enough to the treasure for him to get to it. And he'll probably blow us up. Or shoot us. Or both. Or --"

Ben stopped walking, letting people pass him on the busy street. "Riley. Shut. Up." Riley's mouth immediately closed, though his eyes were stormy. Ben rarely told him off like that. Usually, the younger man suspected that Ben just tuned him out.

They started walking again, and Riley said, quieter this time. "He has a British accent. I _hate_ guys with British accents. They always sound so superior." Ben sighed, readjusting the papers in his arms so that they were more comfortable. "But Ben, really, I wouldn't trust him."

Ben didn't answer this, instead saying, "You know what Riley, the day Ian tries to blow us up, you have the right to say 'I told you so', okay?"

Riley looked pleased, though still upset. "Ben, you're still kind of missing the point. This guy will kill us. In our bed's. He hates me!"

"You barely talked to him." Ben pointed out.

Riley stumbled over the first stair to the subway and Ben had to throw out an arm in order to keep him from toppling down the stairs. "That was because he hates me!"

Deciding not to argue any more, Ben said, "Fine. He hates you. You won't be seeing him that much anyway. We're going to South America next week."

Riley groaned loudly. "Great, that's exactly what I wanted. A lot of bugs and sun and camping and people who don't speak English." Here he paused for a second, "Why doesn't everyone speak English?"

"Because they don't want to." Ben didn't want to get into this conversation with an already-disgruntled Riley. "And they'll speak Spanish, mostly. You're Spanish isn't that bad."



The train pulled up and the two boarded. "Well, we should still build, like, a translator or something." Riley slumped in his seat. "Like on _Star Trek_. Why hasn't anyone ever built one of those?"

Shaking his head, Ben decided not to answer, leaving Riley time to rant to himself about the various inventions in _Star Trek _people should make. Ian was totally forgotten.

_Present Day_

Ben wished he had a gun. He had never wished for one in his life. But now, he was going against people who would all have guns and would all want to kill him and he had…

Nothing. He had nothing.

But he still had to go. There was no way he couldn't. Creeping forwards, he heard the first pair of guards talking about _baseball_. Ben snorted, his body tense. He would have to try to outrun them. He wasn't that good at boxing.

As the guard passed him, Ben made a split-second decision. He leaped on the guy's back and yanked the gun from his hand. Holding it against his temple, he muttered. "Don't make a sound." He stared at the other guy so he knew he was included in this too.

Ben could feel the guy tensing beneath him. If they decided to fight it out, Ben knew he's never be able to use the gun. Even if Riley's life was on the line, he would never be able to pull the trigger. He was a coward, and he knew it.

But the guy backed down. Ben climbed off his back and used his gun to point to the wall, indicating that the guys should sit. "Now, you're not going to make a sound." He said, his voice sounding hard and cold even to him. And much more calm than he actually felt. He knew that the guards would run as soon as he left and wishing he had brought a rope to bind them with.

"Where's Riley?" he demanded, realizing them how powerful a tool the gun was.

The man tilted his head down the hall. "He's just that way, mate. But believe me, you'll hear them before you get there. The guys have been having a little fun." Ben didn't like the sound of that.

He took off running, no longer caring if the guards would follow him or get help. Having a gun made you reckless. Having a friend in danger made you stupid. Ben was a little bit of both.

He pulled to a dead stop when he heard the noise. It began with a soft moan, one that Ben recognized.

Riley. Rage, anger such as he hadn't felt all night coursed through him. He started forward, ready to barge into the room. He would tear apart the people who had hurt Riley, he would --

The moan was followed by the sound of flesh hitting flesh and a scream. Ben, paralyzed by the sound of his friend being hurt, could only stand, staring in the direction of the noise.



A sound behind him made Ben turn around. A hand clapped down on his shoulder. "Long time no see, Ben."

Then everything went black.

**Review?**


	9. Pitch Black

**I don't own them.**

_Three Years Ago_

Riley was glad to be away from Ian. They had been on a scouting trip all day -- in pairs. And guess who Riley's partner was?

Ben was with the guide, a native who spoke only broken English. Ben got to investigate the caves while Riley and Ian were stuck on Forest Duty. And it turned out that Ian's favorite past time was to make Riley's life miserable.

But now it was --Riley didn't know what time it was. He booted up his laptop, hoping to have some internet connection. It would be a lot more trouble if he had to create his own internet on top of everything else.

The twenty-four-year-old spread out in the most comfortable position he could. They were in Guatemala and it was _hot_. Not to mention the bugs that insisted on flying in the tents and landing on you and sucking your blood.

Whatever. It would be worse. He could be sharing a tent with Ian.

Riley absentmindedly rubbed his face, wincing as he came in contact with a sore spot. Maybe it wasn't visible. Maybe Ben wouldn't notice. Maybe the moon was made out of cheese (he never got that one. It wasn't _yellow_, for one thing)

He forgot about his sore face and the bugs and the heat when the computer finally started up. He lost himself in the layers of code, once again feeling a rush of admiration towards the Masons who'd created it. They had made layers upon layers of code without a computer. Which goes to show you how much you could get done when there wasn't a television handy.

The fact that he was, almost literally, lost in the code made it possible for him not to notice Ben when the older man came in. It wasn't until Ben was actually inches in front of him that Riley jumped at the sound of him.

The jump (not recommended for small tents) sent the laptop flying. Riley threw out a hand to catch it and ended up landing painfully on his elbow. Yet another sore to add to his growing list. "Hey Ben." Riley said, attempting to clean the PC with his already grimy sleeve. "How'd exploring go?"

"Okay. We found a couple of pictures -- well, some lines that look like pictures -- that I think _might_ be dated back to 300 BC when the Mayan empire was thriving and…" his voice trailed off. Only that would have made Riley look up. Ben never got bored while given lectures on History. Riley usually just tuned them out.

"Riley." Riley wiggled at the tone Ben used. He knew what was coming, he knew it… "Riley, what happened to you face?"

"What happened to yours?" Riley asked, desperate for another few seconds without the Spanish Inquisition.

Ben didn't even crack a smile. His hands traced the place on Riley's face that was sore. And now swelling. For once, Riley was thrilled they were at least a hundred miles from the nearest mirror. "Did you trip or something?"

"Am I really that much of a klutz?" Riley countered. He sighed, rolling onto his back so he count the mosquitoes in the tent better. He thought for a second about telling Ben exactly how much Ian hated him. But what would Ben do about it? Ian had money to offer and Riley had…nothing. Just his computer and a tag-a-long little brother look.

Sixteen. There were sixteen mosquitoes in the tent. "Yeah, I am really that much of a klutz." He sighed, trying to smile. "They should really clear out those vines. Someone could break their neck out there."

Ben continued to stare at him in a way that made Riley feel like he was being X-Rayed. Then he tilted his head and nodded, as if he was trying to convince himself that Riley's story was true. Then he turned away.

For one pathetic moment, Riley wished he hadn't. He wished that Ben had asked what was _really _going on. And maybe Riley would have told the truth that time.

Instead, Riley flipped back onto his stomach, trying to ignore the bites of the insects and the rapidly swelling bruise over his eye.

_Present Day_

"Ben?"

Riley pushed his pain away. It was nothing, really. A couple of broken fingers, a broken nose, and some really nice cuts and bruises over the rest of his body. Oh, and the burn on his chest. And that big ol' gash in his leg.

But he'd be fine. It was Ben he was worried about. Ben had just been brought in by a big goon and was currently out cold. Riley, luckily not bound (he couldn't get very far on a bad leg) had crawled over to him while Ian was busy conversing with his henchmen.

Gently, Riley touched Ben's face, running his fingers up until he felt a bruise. The light was dim and one of his eyes was swollen shut but even Riley could see that the bump on Ben's head was pretty big. And when his hand came away from his friend's head, it was stained with what Riley could only assume was blood.

Quickly checking over the rest of Ben, Riley determined that his only injury was the head. But he still hadn't regained consciousness and the wound was bleeding a lot. "Ben, I tried to tell you to just leave me." Riley whispered, dragging himself closer to his friend, ignoring the pain radiating from every part of his body. "I'm sorry I got you into this, but I swear you won't get hurt." _More than you already are_. Riley cradled Ben's head in his lap, waiting.

One of the henchmen dragged him off the ground and another one went for Ben. Ian advanced on Riley until his face was inches away from the computer geek's. "So Riley, new question. Do you want to work with me or do you want Ben to die? Your choice."

It was the one thing Riley couldn't stand. He would have given up his own life in a heartbeat, would have taken any beatings Ian had to offer if it meant protecting Ben. But he couldn't willingly let Ben die. Not because of him.

He opened his mouth, about to give in, about to betray Ben and everything they'd worked for. Then everything happened at once.

The man who was holding Ben suddenly screamed as Ben took him out with a forceful punch to the face. Ian whirled around, aiming his gun at Ben, but it was already too late.

Riley had to move in his captor's now much too tight grip to see what was going on. He saw Ben standing mostly upright, pointing a gun at Ian. Ian was facing him, pointing a gun back.

"Going to shoot me, Ben? I'd love to see you try." Riley was disgusted to see a _smile_ playing on the villain's face. Ben's grip on the gun tightened but his eyes remained steady and his voice cold as he said, "I will if you don' put your gun down and release Riley now."

Ian's laugh was harsh and he nodded at the man holding Riley. In a second Riley felt a hand at his neck, nearly choking him. "I can break his neck now and shoot you. Two birds with one stone, you might say." He nodded again and Riley felt his head being irresistibly drawn to one side.

Then a shot rang out and Riley crumpled to the ground.

**Review?**


	10. Dove White

**I don't own them. **

Ben cursed and lunged at Ian, forgetting the gun in his hand, forgetting that Ian was bigger than him by about fifty pounds, forgetting that the odds were ten on one. All he knew was Riley was on the ground, not moving, a hole in his stomach.

Just as he was about to grab Ian and be beaten into the ground the door burst open. "Freeze!"

Ben felt the weight of at least six guns on him, knowing that they all belonged to Ian. He turned slowly towards the door, unable to be happy or relieved at the sight of the FBI. He could only think ruefully that he was stupid not to be thinking that Saduski would follow his every move.

For a split second Ben didn't know what would happen. He didn't know whether Ian would shoot him. He almost, for that second, wished he would. The prospect of living without Riley, of going back to Abigail and telling her Riley was dead…he didn't even want to think it. He cast one anxious look at his friend and hoped with every fiber of his being that this man…his friend, his partner in crime, his _brother_… wasn't dead. Because then there wouldn't be any reason for Ben to live.

Ian was a criminal, a traitor, a low-life, the scum of the Earth, in Ben's opinion, but he wasn't stupid. With a look at Ben that said _we're not finished yet_ he thrust his hands into the air and held them there as Saduski and his team came in and forced his hands behind his back.

As soon as Ben was free to do so, he dropped to his knees beside Riley. He pushed back the other man's hair, words of comfort and prayer coming out in a half-whisper as he realized that the younger man's eyes were half-open, staring. His words stopped completely when he realized there was no pulse.

He barely heard one of the men call for a paramedic. He cradled Riley's head in his arms, pushing the hair out of his eyes. He registered the bruises, the cuts, the broken bones.

And there, in the basement of a church, surrounded by FBI and people who had wanted to kill him minutes ago, Benjamin Franklin Gates started to cry.

_One Year Ago_

"Tell me what I need to know…or I'll shoot your friend."

Ben's mouth was slightly open at this statement, his mind still trying to process everything. This was _Ian. _Ian, who had believed in the treasure and had gone on a journey all around the world looking for it. Ian…who Riley had never trusted. Who always seemed to scare the young genius.

"Hey!" Ben looked at Riley, standing on the other side of a small wall of barrels. His hands were up, his eyes wide as he looked down the barrel of a gun. Gun. For a second, Ben remembers something Riley said years ago, when Ian first joined their band of two in search of the treasure. _He'll shoot us. Or blow us up. Or both._

Or blow us up. As quickly as he could with numb fingers, Ben struck a match, holding it out, trying to get Ian's attention. _Don't shoot the kid…don't shoot Riley. _"Look where you're standing. All that gun powder." He swallowed, looked at Riley. He hoped Riley would understand. "You shoot me, I drop this, we all go up."

The next thirty seconds, Ben can honestly say he never knew what happened. He had thrown the fire, Ian had caught it…then it fell. Ian and Shaw got out, leaving Ben and Riley…

"Riley, get over here!" Ben pushed against the heavy metal door, hoping it would open, hoping it would keep them alive. He heard the young man get next to him, obviously afraid of the fire. "Ben, what is this?"

"Smuggler's hold." Ben grunted, finally getting the door open, thanking his father for, in one of his many attempts to get young Ben's mind off the treasure, teaching him about ships and piracy. He knew that the door would lead them to a heavily guarded room, though if it would survive the blast of a hundred kegs of gunpowder, he didn't know.

"Get down!" Ben shouted, pushing Riley to the ground just before the gunpowder exploded.

It was like hearing a terrible band play at maximum volume. It was like being next to a jet plane as it started up. Ben wanted to cover his ears, at the same time feeling, for the first time in a week, very warm. His body shivered at the uncomfortable feeling of going from very cold to boiling hot in a matter of seconds.

Then, as quickly as it started, it was over. Ben opened an eye he hadn't remembered closing and saw snow. With two digs he was out. "Riley?" There was no answer.

Panicking now, Ben berated himself for taking Riley here in the first place. For bringing Riley along on any of his expeditions. Riley could have been shot today. He could have died. Again.

Just as he felt his breathing go shallow with fear, he felt a pile of snow move near him and Riley's head pop out. The man scrambled for his glasses before placing them on his face and looking at Ben, obviously as relieved to see his friend as Ben was to see him. Ben, already sitting on top of the snow, held out a hand to pull Riley out, which he gladly accepted.

They started walking, Ben talking about the Inuit village (which he hoped was in this direction) while Riley was beside him, for once not talking or complaining, just shivering.

"He's going to steal the Declaration of Independence, Ben." Riley said, his teeth chattering as he spoke. His eyes suddenly met Ben's and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "Told you he'd shoot us. Or me. Though it was you who decided to blow us up."

Ben looked at him and couldn't help but grin, telling himself over and over that Riley's shivering was due to the cold, not the near-death experience Ben had placed him in. Again.

_Present Day_

Ben stood in the hospital, looking at the double doors Riley had just been rushed through. For the first time in hours, he allowed himself to think. This was Riley, the one who would never grow up, who would spend more time at their house than at his apartment, who would and had gone to the ends of the Earth to help Ben.

A touch on Ben's shoulder made him jump. He whipped fast, startling Abigail. They looked at each other, Abigail shaking, tears running down her cheeks. Ben felt nothing. He had cried in the church but hadn't cried since. This was beyond words. Beyond tears.

"Will he be okay?" Abigail finally whispered, her voice breaking. Ben drew the smaller woman to him, all thoughts of their earlier fight forgotten in the face of the tragedy. He kissed the top of her head but said nothing. He couldn't tell her what he didn't know.

"What happened?" Two words that Ben had been thinking all night. What _had _happened? He remembered the bruises on Riley's body, the blood in his apartment. He remembered Riley's face when he had been shot, all surprise.

What had happened? And why couldn't Ben help him?

He stood, looking at the doors that lead to the operating room, willing his friend to be okay.

At the same time, something deep inside him told him he might already be too late.

**Review?**


	11. Chocolate Brown

_One Year Ago_

Ben felt Abigail's hand slipping from his. On the other side, he saw the Declaration role towards the edge, about to fall into oblivion. He looked down at Abigail. "Do you trust me?" He hoped he'd be able to pull this off, but he _had_ to get the Declaration. She nodded.

It happened in an instant. He rolled over to the grab the Declaration, dropping Abigail the relatively short way to the next platform where she crumpled to a half-crouch. Ben grabbed the document and nearly slid off the edge. He heard the calls below him before he too fell to the next platform. He looked at Abigail's stricken face, thinking _she shouldn't be here_. She shouldn't. Neither should his father. They were probably risking their lives for nothing, as he and Riley had done so many times before.

Except this time, nothing included jail. He had made the people he cared about into felons. Turning to Abigail he said, rather breathlessly, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dropped you. I had to save the Declaration."

She nodded, of course. She understood why she had to save the Declaration. It meant everything to the country. It stood for everything America was supposedly built on -- Freedom, Justice, Liberty. "Don't be. I would have done the same to you." He had no doubt she would.

Riley passed them. Ben put a hand on the young man's shoulder. He looked completely shell-shocked, though he tried to cover it up with a snort and, "I would have dropped you both. Freaks." He hoped that Riley hadn't gotten hurt in the fall from the top.

Turning to Ian, who was still looking at the place where Shaw had fallen, Ben said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Ian, it's not worth it."

Ian turned to him, his face unreadable. "Do you imagine any one of your lives is worth more to me than Shaw's? We go on."

Ben sighed, putting a hand under Abigail's elbow. They walked to the end of the passage and Ben felt himself praying that the treasure would be there, if only so that no one else had to die. Up ahead, he heard Riley's incredulous, half-scared, half-frustrated voice call out. "This is it? Another dead end?" He knew his friend was used to dead ends. They had had more than their share. He prayed there was something in the little room Riley had overlooked, something that proved the treasure was there. Another clue, even.

There was nothing. The small room they entered was completely devoid of anything it might have had. "Yes." He said, answering Riley's question.

"There has to be something more." Riley said desperately, looking around the room, his hands trailing streaks in the grime. Sighing, Ben said, "There is no more."

"Another clue?" Riley asked hopefully, his sharp eyes pointing at the ceiling, the walls, looking for anything to lead them out of this mess.

Ben couldn't stand it. "There are no more clues! That's it, it's over, end of the road. The treasure's gone. Moved. Taken somewhere else." He saw Riley's scared, puppy-dog eyes and wished he hadn't yelled when the young man turned his face away.

Ian looked at him carefully. "You're not playing games with me, Ben?" Ben wished he was. He wished there was a clue only he could see. He wished there was a way to get his friends out of this mess. But there wasn't. He shook his head, and Ian turned to his men. "Okay, go."

Ben watched incredulously as the men got into the elevator, their only way out. He heard Riley's feeble protest and turned to Ian. "You can't just leave us here."

Ian pointed a gun at Ben. "Yes I can. Unless you tell me the next clue."

There were no more clues. Suddenly, that wasn't important to Ben anymore. He had to get everyone out of here. It wasn't worth it anymore. It wasn't worth this much. "There isn't another clue."

Ian looked like he was about to pull the trigger, and Ben honestly couldn't find a way to stop him from doing that. Behind him, he heard Riley try. "Ian, just come down here and we'll talk through this together." Good ol' Riley. Ben should have listened to him. Riley knew that Ian was trouble from the start.

When Ian pointed his gun at Riley, Ben saw the vein pulsing in the other man's face. _He's going to kill him._ Ben realized suddenly. He moved closer to Riley, hoping to maybe push him out of the way. They had done that before. It might work again. "Don't talk." Ian warned Riley.

"Okay."

Everything seemed to happen at once. There was the loud sound of the gun, coupled with Abigail and his father's screams. Riley was rooted to the spot and as Ben desperately tackled his friend, he realized that he was too late. Riley wasn't moving.

_Present Day_

"Is there a Mr. Gates here?"

Ben looked over at the young doctor who had called his name. He reached down and gently shook Abigail. He didn't blame her for sleeping -- it was just past five am and Ben himself would be tired if he wasn't so scared.

Scared. Finally, he admitted to himself what he wouldn't even let himself _think_ for the last two hours. He was scared Riley would die. He was scared he would be the cause of his best friend's death. The friend who had been in his life for so long, since almost the beginning of his search. Ben had thought hard about it for the past two hours and came to the same terrible conclusion. He put Riley in danger day after day, expecting him to be there like a…coat. Terrible analogy. But he had never told Riley how much he meant to him. Never had he actually called Riley a friend.

But that's exactly what the young man was. Somehow, between traversing the mountains of South America and diving into undersea caves in the south Pacific, Riley had wormed his way into Ben's heart. And Abigail's.

Abigail was clutching Ben's hand like a drowning man clutches a life preserver. Ben squeezed her hand back, his eyes trained on the doctor. "How's Riley?"

The doctor was a young man, as tall as Ben with high cheekbones and a straight, Roman nose. His skin had the slightly leathery look of one who preferred the outdoors and the small lines around his eyes showed he was accustomed to smiling. He wasn't smiling now. "Riley Poole is in pretty bad shape." He began, his voice rough. "We managed to stabilize him, but there was a lot of internal bleeding. The bullet hit a couple of major organs -- his lungs getting the most damage. The thing we're worried about, though, is the head."

Ben winced, he was prepared for what came next. He had known as soon as he had seen Riley in that little room beneath the church that he probably had a concussion. There was a massive amount of blood on the back of his head. If Riley had had slipped into unconsciousness when shot (which he had) there was a distinct possibility of him slipping into…

"He's in a coma." The doctor confirmed, letting out a long sigh. "If you've watched a Hallmark movie, you probably know how these go. He can wake up in a minute or next year or never. After the first forty-eight hours, the time period is basically leaning toward never." The doctor kneaded his forehead with one hand, as if he was avoiding looking at Ben and Abigail.

Ben had thought he was prepared for this news, but nothing made him ready for the stone that seemed to drop into his stomach, making his insides go cold. Riley, unconscious? Riley, maybe never waking up? Riley had stood by him on countless missions, been game to go across the world on ten minutes notice, had pulled Ben out of danger more times than he could count, had jumped in front of a bullet to save his friend. Riley had one of the best minds in the world. And he might never get to use it again.

Finally, Abigail said, quietly, trying to hold back the tears that showed in her voice. "Can we see him?"

The doctor nodded, backing out of the waiting room and leading them through a maze of hallways in a twisting path that Ben was too dazed to follow. They finally ended up in a room with a beeping machine. On the bed, looking distinctly small surrounding by all the machines around him, was Riley.

Ben was unable to hold it in anymore. Collapsing in a chair next to his friend's bed, the treasure hunter burst into tears.

**Review?**


	12. Liquid Gold

_One Year Ago_

Ben watched, stunned, as blood bloomed over Riley's chest. "Ben..." The young man said, the one word all he could get out before sinking to the floor.

Ben wanted to catch the elevator that was slowly moving away from them, carrying Ian along with it. Wanted to yell out for help that wouldn't come. Instead, he dropped beside Riley, shoving the Declaration towards Abigail.

"C'mon, Riley, don't do this to me!" Ben gripped Riley's hand with his left one, his right hand already peeling off the young man's shirt.

Riley had screamed for a second as he fell but now went quiet, his eyes wide as he looked at the blood that was pooling at his chest. His mouth was open, ready to scream, but no sound came out. The grip on Ben's hand was slowly turning Ben's fingers blue.

"Abigail, distract him!" Ben said, trying to tug his hand back. He had to stop this bleeding. The bullet had pierced Riley's stomach area, not his chest. Abigail, who had previously been watching the scene with a kind of open-mouthed horror, knelt on the other side of Riley.

"Riley look at me!" Her voice was bordering on hysteria. It was high-pitched. It was still a command. Riley turned his head away from his bloody body and locked eyes with the historian.

Abigail nodded inanely, glancing at Ben who was ripping Riley's shirt in half so he could use it to stop the blood flow. "Good, Ri. Now give me your hand, and hold it as tight as it hurts."

It was a trick her mother had used on her. Abigail Chase was not someone who was fond of shots. She was downright terrified of them. Every time she went in for a checkup and had to have a booster her mother would stand next to her, hand out, waiting for Abigail to take it. "Just squeeze me as much as it hurts." Her mother had said, and that, coupled with the promise of a lollipop if she was good, was just enough to make Abigail sit through a shot.

The different between that scenario and this one that that shots didn't kill you. Riley was currently bleeding (to Abigail's untrained eyes) more than enough for him to die of blood loss.

Somehow, Riley managed to take her hand, though his own was shaking. Abigail held his gaze, trying not to let the young man see how much his pain affected her. As Ben worked, first creating bandages and then checking Riley's pulse and temperature and who knows what else, Riley would wince, teeth clenched so he wouldn't let out a sound.

Abigail leaned towards him, unable to take the obvious suffering any longer. "It's okay, Riley. You can yell if you need to." She forced out a laugh. "It's not like anyone's going to hear it."

Riley shook his head, his face screwed up in pain. He opened his mouth, able to get out a sound that might have been "Ben". The look Riley had on his face as he watched Ben tend the wound made Abigail's heart break.

Riley totally trusted Ben. Even shot, bleeding to death, left alone in a pit, he thought Ben would get them out.

_Present Day, 27 hours into the coma_

Ben jerked his head up as the aroma of bad coffee infiltrated the room. Turning his head in the direction of the smell, Ben saw Abigail. He didn't smile at her, as he normally would have done, instead taking the coffee from her hands and chugging it, ignoring the fact that it was up there on the list of the worst coffee he'd ever tasted. Ignoring the fact it was scalding hot.

Abigail was looking at Riley, her eyes wide, bloodshot from crying and existing on twelve hours of sleep in the best three days. Ben wanted to reach out to her, touch her, hold her. Tell her he knew exactly how she felt, because he was feeling it too.

This shouldn't be happening. Riley was young -- twenty-seven, if Ben remembered correctly. He had so much talent (he had once broken into the "highly encrypted" codes of the French government). He was brave. And loyal. If anyone should be in the coma, it was Ben.

He found it hard to blame even Ian for all this. Ian was a monster, to be sure. If Ben ever came across him, the man will be dead. He had broken bones for Riley, tried to kill him. Maybe succeeded in killing him.

But it couldn't all be blamed on Ian, and Ben was taking his share. For the last twenty-seven hours, he had sat a vigil at Riley's side, waiting, thinking. Riley had known the truth about Ian from the beginning. He hadn't trusted the man. Yet Ben had accepted him, dismissing Riley's feelings as just _feelings_.

Abigail sank in a chair near Ben, one hand resting on the covers of Riley's bed, the other holding her still-untouched cup of coffee. Her hand eventually found Riley's and she held it, musing "shouldn't we call his family?"

Ben sighed. It wasn't the first time the issue had been brought up. He remembered the conversation from years ago. Riley didn't have a family. He had said as much. Riley had no one, except for Ben and Abigail. Except for Ben.

Again, Ben wished Riley could wake up. For -- for a hundred reasons. But mainly so he could tell him exactly how much Riley meant. A companion and partner for nine years. A friend. A best friend. He had never told Riley any of it. Without realizing it, he had taken Riley for granted.

An hour passed, the clock on the wall loudly ticking by the seconds. A nurse came in to check on Riley and half-heartedly asked Ben and Abigail to leave. Abigail had gotten up to speak to the doctor who came in, Ben being too wrapped up in his own thoughts to even notice the man.

Leaning forward, Ben smoothed out the young man's hair, brushing it back so it was rumpled, the way he'd always seen it. He thought about how odd Riley looked without his glasses, which had been lost somewhere between the church and the hospital. He gently kissed Riley's fingers (the ones that weren't purple and swollen).

"I'm sorry, Riley."

He didn't know why he was talking. He didn't believe doctors when they said the coma patients could hear people. He knew Riley would wake up at the sound of his voice. Maybe if this were Disney. Maybe if it was a story, or a nightmare. But it wasn't. Riley was hurt. He could become brain-dead. Even if he woke up, he could have brain damage. If Riley had nothing else spectacular about him (which wasn't true. Riley had a lot of good things about him) his brain made him one of the top hackers in the world.

Swallowing past a lump that had inexplicably built up in his throat, Ben pressed closer to Riley and continued. "I'm sorry you're like this. I'm sorry you got kidnapped. I'm sorry for...everything." A tear splashed onto one of the many bandaged adorning Riley's too-thin body. "It's all my fault."

Abigail nodded to something the doctor said and walked with him, accepting his offer to join him for a lunch of cafeteria food.

The first tear had opened gates that had been resolutely shut for twenty-seven hours. "I wish you could hear me." He whispered, watching the tears wet Riley's bruised skin. "I wish you could know..."

He was acting like a child. A young girl. He was crying over the body of someone who couldn't hear him. He might as well be talking to the wall. And he was _crying_. This was ridiculous to the point of being clichéd.

But he continued anyway. "You're my best friend, Riley. I hope you know that. You're the best friend I could have asked for." He had to let go of Riley's hand, for fear of squeezing the hurt fingers too hard. "You're so smart and funny and brave and loyal --" he choked, crying again. Great, now he was a _teenage_ girl.

Trying to pull himself together and hoping Abigail wouldn't come in any time soon, Ben straightened up. He brushed away the tears that had left tracks on his face and wrapped his hand around Riley's fingers once again.

With one hand, Ben moved a stray strand of hair back behind an ear and said, laughing through the remains of his tears, "You wake up and we'll all go out to Friendlys." Ben promised, naming Riley's favorite childish restaurant.

Maybe the powers of Disney and Hallmark decided to give Ben a break. Maybe Riley really wanted Friendlys. Ben never knew -- never even thought to ask.

Bruised fingers imperceptibly closed within Ben's hand. Unbelieving, Ben looked at his friend's face and saw that Riley's eyes were open and looking at him. Riley was crying too.

**One chapter to go, everyone. **

**By the way, the whole story was set up for Riley to die. I even had that chapter half-written. I couldn't do it. Not even my dislike for Ben can make me kill Riley. He's too damn sweet.**

**As always, please review. **


	13. Bruised Purple

_Six Months Ago_

Ben was sitting on the couch in the living room, re-reading _Common Sense_. He had read the small book...oh, over a hundred times. He still found it hilarious.

It was November. Being in Pennsylvania in December meant snow. And it was snowing. Hard. Last night, Ben had found Riley at his front door, stamping his feet to get rid of the snow and the cold. "My heat went out!" The young man had said indignantly. "Can you believe it?"

What Ben couldn't believe was that Riley was still living in that dingy little apartment. But it didn't matter, Riley looked _cold_. His ears were red, his cheeks flushed, his hands blue. "C'mon in." Ben said, trying to keep the smile out of his voice. He stepped back to let the techie in.

"The shrew here?" Riley had asked, peering up the large staircase as if he expected Abigail to come tearing down it any second. Now Ben had to laugh, knowing that Riley was genuinely fond of Abigail.

The two of them had stayed up for the better part of the evening watching Giants vs. Patriots. Riley had been brought up a Patriot fan, and Ben's whole family loved the Giants, so there were more than a few bets going on during the first and second quarters. Of course, that was before Riley had fallen asleep on the couch, so out of it not even Ben's yells of frustration could wake him up.

Before going upstairs, Ben had slipped off Riley's coat and boots. He winced at the sight of the long scar down his friend's abdomen, one of the few scars left from their encounter with Ian months ago. As he drew a blanket over the man, Ben found himself musing about how young Riley looked in his sleep. Much younger that twenty-six.

Now Ben was curled on the same couch Riley had slept on, smiling wryly at the arguments Thomas Paine had made that persuaded the people towards revolution. He was nearing the end of the book when he heard a loud crash from the kitchen.

Ben looked up worriedly. He reached for the napkin he was using as a bookmark and called out, "Riley?"

There was no answer. Scared now, Ben headed towards the kitchen, a thousand thoughts running through his head, each more impossible than the last.

What he didn't expect to find in the kitchen was four large pots on the floor, surrounding the Riley and the startlingly scarlet blood that was pooled on the floor.

"Riley!" Ben knelt down, feeling for a pulse. Riley was clearly unconscious, the blood stemming from the back of his head. His pulse was strong, though, and Ben suspected he'd be waking up soon. Still, there was a good chance for a concussion, especially if one of the pots had hit Riley on the head. "Come on, Ri, wake up." He didn't notice his hand was covered in blood until he brought it up to his forehead and felt it smear on his face.

A low groan from the body on the floor made Ben want to leap for joy. "It's okay, you're okay." Ben murmured, moving Riley's head so it rested on his lap.

"Ben?" Riley attempted to focus on the man leaning over him, but the pounding in his head made it hard to see straight. "What happened?"

"You fell, I think." Ben said, glancing around the kitchen for a phone. He spied the base for it in the corner, but the actual phone was missing. That was the problem with cordless phones.

Riley groaned, his eyes starting to flutter shut again. He felt terrible, and tired. He tried to move his hand up to his head and found that it took an indecent amount of energy, so he stopped. "I think the pots might have had a hand in that." Riley muttered, referring to his fall. His eyes closed all the way now.

"Riley! No, you have to stay awake." Everything Ben remembered from the year he was in Boy Scouts told him that you should not, under any circumstances, fall asleep with a head injury.

"But I'm tired, Ben." Riley protested feebly, moving his head so it rested under Ben's arm. Ben tangled his fingers in Riley's hair, stroking his head, trying and failing to take the pain away while he desperately worked his phone out of his pocket.

"Riley..." Ben said, searching for a topic to keep his friend awake. "Do you remember Africa? Like, seven or eight years ago?"

Riley snorted. "How can I forget? You got shot, Ben." His eyes, which had opened a fraction at the question, closed again, and Ben saw Riley wince. Why was it Riley who always got hurt anyway?

Giving up on the questions, Ben dialed 9-1-1 on the cell phone with one hand while gently shaking Riley's shoulder with the other. "Stay awake , Riley." Ben ordered, waiting for the line to pick up.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" A female voice on the other end of the line asked. Ben shouted with relief, making Riley say, "Be quiet, Ben, I'm trying to sleep."

In the fifteen minutes it took for the ambulance to get there, most of Ben's arms and torso got soaked with Riley's blood. Two minutes before the ambulance arrived, Riley fell asleep. Those two minutes were some of the longest in Ben's life.

_Present Day_

"Riley." Ben breathed, his voice cracking. Another tear fell onto Riley's face and he blinked, his bruised face twisting into what could either be a smile or a grimace.

Ben's fingers strayed towards the call button for the nurse, but stopped. H e didn't want anyone else in here -- not a nurse or a doctor or even Abigail. After twenty-seven hours of waiting, Ben wanted Riley all to himself.

Riley's mouth opened to ask a question then closed again, his eyebrows coming together, confused. "They said you might not be able to talk for a while," Ben said. Then, before he lost his nerve, he said, "Riley, I'm so sorry."

Riley's raised eyebrows clearly said "what for?" and Ben continued, the words stumbling over each other. "You should never have gotten hurt. You didn't even know about the new treasure." He paused as Riley's eyes lit up. "That's not important now. Anyway, it should have been me with Ian, me getting hurt, not you."

This time when Riley opened his mouth, words came out. "Ben..." It was more of a croak than a word, but the sound of his name made more tears spring to Ben's eyes. "Ben...it was better that way."

Ben tried to stop the wave of anger that rose inside of him as Riley had to pause for breath. He knew Ian was in custody again, but all he wanted to do was tear the man limb from limb for hurting Riley. _His _Riley.

When Ben tried to talk, Riley squeezed his hand again. "You have a family, Ben. A girlfriend." The look that came over Riley's face was one Ben could only describe as wistful. "You have so much to live for. If they had taken you and you had died, a lot of people would be upset." Riley's eyes closed, his breathing became more labored. Ben knew he should call a doctor but he couldn't. Not now.

"I don't have that stuff, Ben. If I had died...well, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference." Riley hadn't opened his eyes again, but a tear made its way down his bruised face.

"Don't ever say that, Riley." Ben said forcefully . He wanted to...to shake Riley. Make him see that he was Ben's friend. His best friend. That Ben would have never been able to find the treasure or find Abigail without him. "You matter to me. And Abigail." Ben rubbed Riley's bruised fingers. "You're my best friend."

Riley's face twisted as he tried not to cry. Ben leaned forward and hugged him, letting his body press against the call button as he gently hugged his young friend. He barely registered the nurse running in, or even Abigail coming up behind him, crying. The only thing that mattered was Riley, shaking beneath his arms as Ben desperately tried to make him see how important he was.

**Fin**

**A little depressing? Yeah. But I think anyone who was kidnapped and tortured would be depressed. Plus Riley didn't exactly have high self-esteem to begin with. So he doesn't believe Ben when he says he's important. **

**But that's the end. It's how it would end in my mind. Review and tell me what you think. **


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